Relationships
by omegafire17
Summary: The day of the dance, and everyone's getting ready in all sorts of ways - however, the two 'childhood friends' have a bit to discuss regarding how they'll show themselves at the dance itself. RenXNora, Rated T.
1. Dance, Pt 1

**Disclaimer:** Don't own RWBY or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T, with slight M elements

**Based off Vol. 2, Chapter 6 as it was seen this last Thursday :) So seriously, if you haven't seen the episode yet, _do not read this fic_. If you have, ignore that and enjoy.**

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><p>"Ahh" he breathed, walking across the corridor. Much like he'd thought sometime earlier, showers were infinitely preferable to baths overall, though the latter was required sometimes for heavy cleaning.<p>

So he walked on, unassuming, towel secure over his waist and bottle of shampoo in hand.

A blur crossed the corner ahead of him.

To his utter surprise though, even as he reacted, it wasn't Nora who appeared before him but Jaune. "We need to talk" he said intently, grabbing him by the wrist.

Oh no...

"Wah!"

Sure enough, the bottle of shampoo slipped out of his hand by Jaune's hurry; he really hoped no one would slip on it.

In short order, Jaune dragged him back to their dorm room, unlocked it and then had him sit down on the bed. On the bed across from that one, Nora looked up from her spot, cheerily waving at them - and in the moment Jaune wasn't looked, gave her the slightest lip curve in return. He also noticed her 'Boop' shirt (appropriate), the pink shorts with small lightning bolts, the headphones, and the (surprising) small book in her lap. "Hey, what's up?" she asked of them, headphones coming down.

"Nora, I am gonna have a serious conversation with Ren, so I need you to keep those headphones on, okay" he said, his hands together. "Please?"

She blinked, surprised, then she glanced at him - he merely shrugged. Then Nora giggled in a 'whatever' fashion, putting them back on.

Now, about that serious talk...

"*sigh* Ren, I'm just gonna come out and say it..."

Wow, some serious confession vibes from him right now... anyway, sensing this could take awhile, he slowly glanced up a bit as he waited patiently. He wasn't being disrespectful to Jaune, because he was listening, but he wasn't sure where this was going yet - it clearly wasn't a confession though despite the vibes.

"-you are one of my best friends! These past few months I feel like we've really bonded! Even though you don't say much... I mean, you're really quiet. To be perfectly honest, I don't know that much about you personally, but darn it, I consider you to be the brother I never had!"

He glanced down and at Jaune when a full second went by, then it became clear that he'd finished. "And I you" he said mildly.

The boy took this well, as he thought he might, and he took that moment to glance at his clothes, which hung on the door beside him. "Which is why I wanted to get your advice... about girls" Jaune continued.

"Girls?" he asked, surprised. Oh boy, this was gonna take longer than he thought... maybe he could still get dressed while Jaune was getting to his full point. He still listened of course, but he slowly and discreetly tried to reach for his clothes.

In hindsight though, not watching Jaune's movements was a mistake.

"I mean, how did you and Nora...?"

In the space of a split-second, that question registered, then translated to shock; did Jaune just find out!? He quickly turned back, trying to speak, but not very well; "Uhhh... gaaah... uhh-"

To their complete surprise though, Nora came to his rescue: "Ehehehe" she breathed, sheepish, still sitting there with her headphones down now. "Uh, we're not _actually_ together together" she continued, still very sheepish and surprisingly with little hitch in her voice.

"Nora, I _said_ headphones on!"

"OH!"

Hmm, Jaune seemed to have accepted that outright. Whew...

Still, before this could lead to more awkward questions, he got right to the point himself. "Jaune, what is this all about?" he asked.

The blond-haired boy sighed. "It's Weiss; I'm completely head-over-heels for her, and she won't even give me a chance. She's cold, but, she's also incredible, smart, graceful, and talented- I mean have you heard her sing? I mean, I just wish she'd take me seriously, you know? I wish I could tell her how I feel, without messing it all up..."

Mentally, he sighed, looking at him - he wanted to give him good advice, and he'd do his best, but the core problem was how incompatible Jaune and Weiss seemed to be. He couldn't just make her magically love him, or suddenly make Jaune do/say the right things-

"Then do it."

The statement surprised the room, but mostly Jaune, who it had also been directed at - still, he saw Nora drop her headphones, cheerfulness gone.

He knew why; because the third thing compounding this whole situation, which Jaune remained unaware of; the red-haired girl currently looking at him, who's feelings for their leader remained unspoken for now.

"Uh, what-?"

"Tell her exactly what you've just said. No ridiculous schemes, no pick-up lines- just, be honest."

"But, what if she-?"

"Jaune - you can't get it wrong if it's the truth."

"...you're right. Thanks Pyrrha! Good talk, Ren!"

_"Glad to be of service"_ he thought mildly, half-raising his hand in response to that. Still, the moment Jaune was out that door, he saw Pyrrha's entire outward act dissolve, and she slowly turned away. Then he glanced at Nora, who was sadly watching her walk on as well, before she sighed. "Practice what you preach, Pyrrha" she said faintly.

Pyrrha made no response, other than a brief grip on the chair, before she too left the room.

He slowly sighed, feeling bad for them both, but in different ways - still, he looked at Nora, aware of how serious this must make her feel that she'd said that.

"Nora?" he asked, ignoring his clothes for the moment.

For all the notice Nora took though, he might as well have been invisible, even if he was still present. "Sorry, Ren" she said, looking down. "Seeing them like each other that way and not telling each other is driving me crazy. And I won't look at all."

The complete lack of enthusiasm, and general 'Nora-ness', concerned him, even as he slowly acknowledged that she wouldn't look... so he slowly got himself dressed, keeping his senses open should anyone get near their room and barge in on this. Then he walked over to her bed, where she looked up at him, but still not quite like herself.

He was aware of this, but felt it might come sooner if he approached it more naturally, rather than forcing the issue. "Thanks for coming to my rescue back there" he said sincerely.

That got a little smile out of her, least by her standards. "Well, I couldn't let them know that we actually _are_ together together..." she breathed, still sheepish, before she made a sound. "_Why_ can't we let the world know that we're together together, Ren?"

The plaintive note made him slowly smile, which he had surprisingly found cute, or something similar. Still, he sat down: "Well, for one thing, I don't want to make things awkward difficult for this team" he said carefully, but he still took her hand, which did cheer her up a little.

"You mean, for Pyrrha and Jaune, right?"

"Of course" he said with gravity. "We both saw how they feel - Pyrrha really likes our leader, and Jaune is attracted to her, but he thinks he's not worthy, and/or she couldn't like him because of that unworthiness. If we were public in being together together, even in just this room, it'd make things... harder for them, maybe even worse."

"Mmh, that's very likely true" she breathed, before tilting her head. "And how worse?" she asked, sounding more like herself. "Like, team-destroying worse? Never-friends again worse? Or so-choked-up-about-their-feelings-that-they-go-on-a-rampage-and-destroy-Beacon-until-there's-nothing-left-but-rubble worse?"

He slowly raised an eyebrow. "The first two are worst-case scenarios" he answered mildly, stroking her fingers a little, which she giggled at. "The third is just what you'd do, Nora."

"Well of course it is, because I'm me!" she said cheerfully; there was Nora.

"Yes you are."

For that, she just grinned, and gave him a little kiss - which they both liked a lot. And when she finished, she promptly threw herself at him, book and headphones abandoned as she threatened to tip them over the bed; luckily he held her away from the edge.

"And you know, I liked seeing you in a towel" she breathed, with a heavy string of giggles. "You, all muscle-y, and pink."

"I hope you mean my towel..."

"Heheheheheheheheeee."

He breathed out, amused, but still thinking he should have known better. Still, he was a little surprised when she looked at him, really close.

"And you know, when you say 'soon', you reeeally don't mean it" she whispered, in the really breathy way that he had nothing against.

"...huh?"

"Oh, you know, 'doing it' and stuff."

His cheeks started to turn red, but he had to admit, he had nothing for his own defense... but surprisingly, after the little look, Nora had just grinned at him. As he slowly determined, she was not mad, annoyed, or even really holding him to his words; she was just pointing it out to get at him. Heh, classic

"You really want it to happen that bad?" he slowly fired back.

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Come on, cold and hot are both sooo good" she drew out, suddenly pushing him onto the bed back-first, her above him with a crazy grin only she could pull off. "And you know it!"

"I-I'm not denying that-"

"Good!"

"Uh!" he breathed, when Nora basically landed on him... however, her complete stop seconds after that slowly confused him. "Nora?"

"Ahhhaaahhaaa" she breathed, just content to be laying on him by the sound of it. "You just do it when you feel like it; that's how you are! And I'll keep doing what I do best!"

"Surprising me at every possible moment?" he asked playfully, hugging her back.

"Exactly!"

/

"Nora?"

"Not done yet!"

He slowly groaned a bit, irritated despite himself. "You've been in there for fifteen minutes with no noise whatsoever; that speaks impending doom to me" he told her, hearing her merely laugh in response. He was exaggerating of course, and he was glad she'd recognized that, but there were better uses of time than this - well, least he was already wearing his tux.

The door opened, and her head poked out of there, grinning. "I just wanted to see how antsy you'd get" she breathed, sticking her tongue out before stepping out for real, closing the door behind him. For this dance, she wore a strapless pink dress (of course) that went down to mid-thigh, along with detached sleeve things... and her usual shoes. Oh man, Nora...

"Tell me again, what are these for?" she asked, holding up an arm straight up, the other tracing the linings on her detached sleeve.

"Drawing attention, I think" he answered after a moment, before he stepped forward. "I find it works."

"Ooooh, you like it! That's so great!" she basically squeed, jumping toward him and hugging him half-to-death in that split-second she spun them around. "Now, shall we go in?"

"Nora-"

"Yes, Ren?"

His lip curved a little. "Remember that the school doesn't know we're together together" he said, she tilting her head at this, with a fairly shrewd expression. "So there are certain things we can't do."

"There always are" she started, a little faint, before, "Now hit me with them!"

He chuckled a little, delighting Nora. "Obviously, no kissing (she went 'Ahhh') or anything like that - however, you can still slip your arm into mine, dance, and other such things."

"Really!?" she exclaimed, even more delighted. "I thought you'd say we'd never be able to do those!"

"We can, but it has to be right, Nora" he corrected, lip curving. "You can be your normal self, do all that, and no one will think it's unusual - I just have to pretend like you're forcing me, or we're just friends, and/or otherwise look awkward."

She giggled a lot, which he did like, but it still confused him.

"What?"

"Oh, just that you do awkward quite well" she breathed, really low and close to him.

"Uh-"

"Like you did earlier!" she said earlier, before imitating his actions from earlier, except her eyes were wider and the expression was more animated than his had been. ""Uhhh... gaaah... uhh- hehehe! That was so funny!"

He was surprised, but not at the imitation. "How did you keep yourself from laughing, Nora?"

"Oh, that's easy; love" she breathed easily, reaching up with a finger. "Boop" she tapped and sang.

Despite himself, he smiled at her; she was adorable.

"Now, let's go out there and party my good little sloth! Oh, I mean friend, Ren!"

"Waaah!"

Having grabbed his arm, she then promptly dragged him right through the doors, and into the festivities. As could be expected, the place was decorated for a dance event (though it also included doilies and fog machines, hmm), and many people had already paired up and were dancing to a slower song - despite himself, he hoped there wouldn't be too many of those. Still, he discreetly enjoying the oohing-and-aahing bundle that was in his arms, even if he couldn't be open about that like.

"Can we dance right away?" she said, in a playful tone.

He opened his mouth-

"Oh... hey guys."

They both turned, seeing a trying-to-be-strong Jaune standing there, giving his best impression of a smile... and not quite succeeding at either part.

"Hey Jaune!" Nora said happily. "Look who I got to drag to the dance!"

"Nora..." he breathed, as if in annoyance that she was telling people that.

Jaune made a little sound as he realized this, but otherwise thought nothing of it; like he'd planned. "That's great, but, have you guys seen Pyrrha around?" he said, sorta distracted. "I mean, I might as well see who's she brought as a date-"

"Pyrrha didn't bring a date" Nora said, not in her usual way, discreetly looking at him with worry. "I thought you knew?"

With one word, Jaune made it clear that he had not: "What!?" he exclaimed, utterly thrown by that. "But I- and she- well, did she even come to the dance anyway!?"

Having been discreetly surveying the hall, he looked back at Jaune. "She's coming this way now" he merely said, causing Jaune to whir around; and it was true, she was walking slowly in their general direction, but unseeing of their presence. Discreetly, he motioned for Nora to back up with him, and she caught this with a little silent 'Oh!', quickly doing so. Still, they sadly observed as Jaune tried to get her attention, but Pyrrha was too deep in something to hear his greeting - so, sad and confused, Jaune watched as Pyrrha slowly walked up the steps to the balcony.

It took Jaune a full minute of confused decision-making for him to follow.

"Mmh... so what now?" Nora asked sadly, holding onto his arm tighter.

"Well... all may not be lost" he said slowly, seeing Weiss in another corner, with the rest of Team RWBY before they separated. Nora just looked at him, blinking, which he sensed without looking - "This is just a hunch, but, despite Pyrrha's advice, Jaune doesn't appear to have Weiss as his date. Now they're both alone up there without dates..."

It took her a moment, complete with 'thinking' expressions, then she brightened. "And then they just might have that ultra-close romantic talk that finally leads them to confessing their feelings! Like in the movies! Eeeeee! That would be so great!"

"We can hope for them" he merely said, secretly wishing it would happen as well; the three-way tension drama (even if Jaune was currently oblivious to it) was hard to watch. "Now, about that dance-"

"Just promise you'll look like you were anywhere else, my little sloth!" she said cheerfully, then quietly in his ear for that last part.

"It'll be hard, but done" he agreed.

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><p><strong>Certainly interesting, hooking that conversation in while having them 'together together' - how do you think I did?<strong>

**But still, now my interconnected RenXNora stories actually have a confirmed time-frame; during Vol. 2 lol - still, taking place during this episode voids the previous 'They've been holding hands, Nora' line way back from the first one XD Heh... t****hough that could have been Ren exaggerating, and Nora buying it - but that's sorta flimsy**


	2. Dance, Pt 2

**Disclaimer:** Don't own RWBY or any of it's characters.

**Rating:** T, with slight M elements.

**And this one based off Chapter 7 - wow, so many of the smaller details are off due to writing the first part before Chapter 7 came out. But what are you gonna do? XD Still, enjoy**

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><p>"Sooo, you having fun?"<p>

He considered for a moment. "No" he said mildly, but he also said it in a way that showed he didn't mean it.

She merely stuck her tongue out at him, giggling the entire way as he lead her in the slow-dance, but not being the only ones of course. That made it sooo much better, and if she saw the glancing look in his eyes right, he saw that no one was 'giving them a second thought', which was also good.

"And anyway, they've been up there awhile" she said cheerily, still enjoying this. "Which do you think is happening? Kissing? That romantic alone dancing? Or 'more' hehehe."

"...wow, that's surprisingly dirty of you" he said, surprised, but in a slightly-lower voice. Oh yeah, making sure no one was close enough to hear that as they danced near other couples.

She merely grinned, did that 'extending arm' movement, then she came back to him like a rocket. "It's a possibility" she pointed out gently, "And anyway-"

"Uhh..."

His tone (and the fact that he'd stopped) really caught her attention, and she quickly looked where he was.

Pyrrha came back down the stairs, her expression still unhappy, and with no sign of Jaune coming with/after her.

"Oh man..."

In her side vision, she saw Ren glance at her, then back at Pyrrha (who didn't notice them at all). "It's still too early" he said carefully, causing her to look at him. "We don't know what Jaune is doing, or what exactly happened."

"But we may not see him for the rest of the night..." she breathed sadly, holding Ren close to her, who didn't mind.

"We can hope that doesn't happen" he said gently, holding her close - and for now, that was enough.

/

So they danced some more as they waited, nothing special- wait, why was she saying that? Anything she did with Ren was special! Anyway, at least a few minutes had gone by, with no real change in the Jaune/Pyrrha situation.

Still, she grinned at her little sloth Ren, who gave his little affectionate 'what am I gonna do with you?' smile to her - it didn't last long, because they were keeping their together-togetherness a secret for now, but she liked it.

"Hmm?" she breathed when they heard laughter, both of them slowing. "What is-Wow!"

"What the-?"

Somehow completely unembarrassed about wearing a strapless dress (impressive), Jaune walked forward determined through the still-laughing crowd, until-

_"...Jaune?"_

He slowly shrugged a bit. "Well, a promise is a promise" he said mildly.

Pyrrha tried not to laugh, she really did, but it got out anyway - a really really playful and good-natured laugh. "J-Jaune!" she breathed, still laughing. "You didn't have to!"

"Hey, an Arc never goes back on his word" he said, only looking at her. "Now, do you wanna stand there and laugh at me, or do you want to dance?"

"I _would love_ to dance."

Still, Jaune had some good moves, immediately pulling her in with a practiced motion - Pyrrha was pleasantly surprised, even as the dance music changed.

Oh! She knew that song from her dream!

"Ren!" she said, really excited and gesturing to show it! _"This! Is! Happening!"_

"Wait..." he said, in a 'getting an idea' tone. "_What's_ happening?"

With a little giggling chuckle, she dragged him onto the dance floor - and with it, Team JNPR as suddenly dancing perfectly in sync, as part of an outta-nowhere dance number! Just like her dream! Though, Ren was wearing his tux instead of a dress, and the dresses they were wearing were all different, but oh well, she was just so happy this was happening!

Yeah that's right! Work it work it work it!

The dance number part didn't last as long as she'd wanted, because Jaune and Pyrrha were too far into enjoying their dance to really be into the dance itself; shame. So, while those two separated but still stayed close, she stayed even closer to Ren, dancing with him. "Slow-dancing's fun, but this is much better" she said cheerily. "You can actually move as fast as you want!"

He opened his mouth a little, waited till a passing couple was out of earshot, then said it: "But it doesn't allow you to hold me close" he added, but mild. "Not publicly at least."

"Mmh, yeah that's true" she said, before doing another dance move. "But who cares? We're here to have fun!"

"I'm just surprised, Nora."

"Hmm?"

Still dancing well enough, keeping an eye on Pyrrha/Jaune/anyone else who might get close enough, he chuckled a bit. "I thought you'd be all happy about those two."

She slid around his back, striking a pose as he was surprised, giggling with a grin. "And that's great!" she admitted, then sliding back to face him face-to-face. "But it remains to be seen if they've confessed their feelings yet!"

He raised an eyebrow, glancing at the other two dancing members of their team before back. "Isn't that enough though?"

"Nope!"

He gave off a little sigh/chuckle; no doubt asking 'why did I even ask?', which she found adorable.

/

_Outside, little later_

"Wasn't that the most fun ever!?"

"Nora-"

"Well, wasn't it!?"

"It was fun, but that's what you say about everything" he said to her mildly, but his curving lip curving hinted at the real tone, which she giggled at.

"Ahhhhhh" she breathed, reveling in the night air via twirl, the two of them doing a sorta midnight-but-not-actually-midnight walk. Jaune and Pyrrha had yet to even notice that they'd gone, and would likely keep it that way right till the moment they got back. "So let's see, what to do next" she said in a wondering tone. "Hmm... night swim? Ursa hunt? Star-gazing? Nah, not that last one; that's kinda boring after the first minute... unless it lead to something more exciting!"

A hand took hers, making her go 'Oh!', looking straight at Ren. "You are something else, Nora" he breathed playfully.

She grinned, but softly. "Isn't that what you love about me?" she teased.

He chuckled, then stepped closer. "Pretty much" he said, right before her favorite not-intimate part; kissing. He started off simple, but she wanted more, so she yanked his head in closer ('Mmph'), giggling into their kiss - she was so glad she'd learned how to do that.

"What happened to 'no one can know', hmm?" she whispered teasingly, breathing in his face, which he barely reacted to.

"It might change."

"Really!?"

"I said 'might'" he added mildly. "We gotta talk it over thoroughly, but I think for now, letting people know we are 'together together' is enough."

She got so close he had to be cross-eyed. "And just that?" she asked, to be clear.

"Yeah... for now anyway."

"Mmmh, still having secrets" she breathed, before she giggled, pulling back. "Oh well! Now the whole world will know we're together-together!" she said cheerily to the sky, before promptly landing on her back, legs up in the air for a bit.

Ren slowly sat down with her. "And this is supposed to be-?"

"Thinking!"

"Oh..."

Hehe, yeah, she knew that tone; the 'is that what you call it?' tone. Pretty sweet of him!

"Now kiss me" she teased.

He looked at her, but instead of being surprised, he got a small playful smile. "Whatever happened to thinking?" he asked, getting down on his side, making it easier to do as she'd asked.

"Oh you know, I changed my mind" she breathed, giggling. "I do that, you know."

"More than I'll ever be aware of" he answered mildly, but still a little playful as he got closer. Still, she didn't wait for him to get in all the way, because she pulled him in by the tie - something she'd always wanted to do! Ren barely noticed as he kissed her, and she thoroughly enjoyed that, especially when their tongues got lightly involved. Because it wasn't truly intimate whatsoever, she felt warm and not cool, which she did like even if it made no sense - hehe, her body was so weird even she didn't know how she could feel warm and cool at the same time. Then again, Aura was a tricky thing-

Why was she thinking about that? She was kissing Ren; that's her story right there.

"Ahaaahahaha" she giggled, when Ren needed air (she'd gotten some earlier). When he'd gotten it, he lay close beside her, and she could feel his breath against her.

"So, you wanna lay here for awhile longer" he asked, as if kissing like that was normal, "Or get up and see our teammates again?"

"Hmm" she breathed, laying there, arms crossed as she thought. "I don't know - I mean, I'm not feeling like doing either of those things, but then again, doing nothing is also a thing to do. Isn't it? Yeah, I think it is- anyway, I don't know! But whatever you want to do, I'll go along with that too!"

He slowly chuckled. "Until you get your own thoughts again" he admitted, before slowly sitting up. "Well, our team will eventually wonder where we are, especially if we don't return to the dorm."

"What?" she said, sitting up like a rocket. "What do you mean 'if' we don't return, Ren!?"

"I said 'if', Nora" he answered mildly, before he slowly reached up, then he tapped her nose. "Boop."

"GEEEEEEEEE!" she basically squealed; Ren always had her feeling pumped when he did that, especially with that word!

He merely held a hand behind his head, the other taking her arm. "Come on, we should go" he said mildly, pulling her behind him.

"Right! Next stop: seeing our teammates again!" she said, even more cheerfully than her usual, then pointing back to the dance hall with her arm hooked in Ren's. "Charge!"

"Waah!"

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><p><strong>Not quite as long as the first, but well, I still think it's cute XD<strong>

**Plus the chapter is still T-rated, so the alternate way they could have gone would have forced a rating change... lol**


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